Various methods for the cultivation of scallops, oysters and other like shellfish are known in the art; see for example the disclosures of New Zealand Patent Specifications 164532, 165145 and 207152. Broadly speaking, these methods may be divided into two distinct groups, namely, those in which the shellfish are distributed loosely in baskets, cages, mesh floored trays or the like, and those in which each shell fish is secured to a suitable cultivation support means such as, for example, a culture rope or tarred stick. In conventional scallop or oyster farming, where the second of these cultivation methods is used, artificial retaining devices, such as plastic or metal pins, monofilament nylon, metal rings or chemical adhesive must be used to secure the growing shellfish to the culture rope or the like.
It will be appreciated that there are significant disadvantages inherent in each of the two above mentioned broadly stated methods of shellfish cultivation. Briefly, among the more obvious disadvantages is the high cost of equipment and/or labour in setting up and maintaining a shellfish farm which relies on any of these known methods of cultivation. For example, where the shellfish are loosely distributed in baskets or the like the capital outlay for equipment is high and the equipment requires on-going maintenance, further, the shellfish require frequent manual servicing in the form of respreading and removal of marine fouling organisms etc. While the capital cost of equipment may be lower for farms cultivating shellfish where the shellfish are secured to cultivation support means high labour costs are incurred in setting up the farming operation as each shellfish must be individually secured to the culture rope or the like.